Some of the most historically and theoretically provocative areas of modernist studies have recently occupied the interrelated areas of modernism, celebrity, and publicity, challenging the divide between the high culture of modernism (and the elite reputations of its figures) and the publicly mediated culture of celebrity (and the consumerist economy from which modernists claimed to rebel). Following the work of scholars such as Aaron Jaffe in MODERNISM AND THE CULTURE OF CELEBRITY (2005), Justus Nieland in FEELING MODERN (2008), and Jonathan Goldman in MODERNISM IS THE LITERATURE OF CELEBRITY (2011), this interdisciplinary panel seeks to explore further the idea of a "modernist reputation" in aspects of art and literature, as well as media and popular culture.

Apropos of this year's conference theme, it will also devote special attention to the ways in which a quotidian or "vernacular" modernism affectively enables such reputations. As Miriam Hansen argues, modernism encompasses "a whole range of cultural and artistic practices that register, respond to, and reflect upon processes of modernization and the experience of modernity, including the paradigmatic transformation of the conditions under which art is produced, transmitted, and consumed." What do particular reputations signify in particular cultural moments and how do they change over time? What does it mean from an ideological perspective to have a reputation associated with modernist aesthetics? What are the discursive and art-historical currents from which these reputations flow through the modernist imaginary, particularly along a phenomenological horizon where modernity is worked through at the level of the senses?